Abstract

Along with other elements of the professional services industry, those practising the law are under pressure on a number of fronts. Perhaps the most critical is the ongoing and large scale loss of essential skills which is draining the industry of its valuable and difficult-to-replace intellectual capital. Then there are the dictates of the current legal environment where the need to craft acceptable transformation policies and develop empowerment strategies creates further pressures, not to mention the impact of these on the future of the profession and the creation of a socially acceptable judiciary. Also looming is the more remote but theoretically possible large-scale entry of overseas firms into the South African market which will no doubt bring challenges of its own.